CEO Insights Magazine

The education fee financing category market has gone through multiple paradigm shifts over the last couple of decades and now, more students are able to realize their academic aspirations as a result of this. While there are a number of market leading names in the Indian education fee financing category, over the years, Financepeer is one pioneering business organization that has been able to develop into one of the leading players in the market. Prior to their entry into the market, education loans involved lengthy processes, extensive paperwork, demand for collateral or guarantor and high interest rates. By collaborating with the educational institutions, Financepeer has removed all these barriers from education fee financing and helped many students realize their academic aspirations.

Inspired by their success, many companies have ventured into fee financing and it won't be an overstatement to say that Financepeer has carved an entirely new market niche. Mr. Rohit Gajbhiye is brains behind Financepeer and under his guidance, the company has established themselves as industry leaders both in terms of Value and Volume. Rohit has been featured in Forbes 30 under 30 and with him at the helm, Financepeer has received numerous awards including India's Top 30 EdTech Summit- Outstanding payment solution provider of the year 2021, and Best Emerging company of the year 2021 by Business Mint to name a few.

In an exclusive interview with CEO Insights, Rohit talks more about his professional journey and the unique business operations of Financepeer.

Tell us about your professional background and experiences. What inspired you to establish Financepeer?
Ever since my childhood, I have

been listening and reading about the problems faced by the Indian education system. Lack of proper infrastructure, high school dropout rates, dearth of skilled teachers, negligible R&D are some of the perennial problems faced by the education sector. After thorough analysis and deliberations, I along with my co-founders deduced that the root cause of all these problems is the lack of capital in the Indian education system. To address these issues at the school and student's level, we founded Financepeer. At Financepeer we pay the entire year's fee to the educational institution in advance on behalf of students and the students can repay it in easy no cost EMIs.

Could you talk about the learnings and experience that you had acquired from IIT Mumbai and how do you apply them in your current role?
Besides all other things, what I learnt at IIT Mumbai is that it is not always necessary to think from an expert's point of view. Sometimes thinking like a common man is much more effective as this kind of thinking comes from reallife experiences. Education finance is a common man's problem in India. Millions of people are unable to realise their dreams of education due to the capital problem. As the leader of Financepeer, I try to develop the ideas that will help the common man and make education fee finance accessible to everyone without any extra charges.

Could you tell us about the unique services that is provided by Financepeer that makes it stand out from the rest in the market?
In today's world, almost all educators, majorly in developing nations, work on improving the quality of education via various means like infrastructure expansion, digital & innovative Edtech developments & partnerships, different facilities & faculties and so on. But with quality, the price point of education also increases. Due to

this price point only children from wealthy family are able to access this education. The wealth backed children would anyways get exposure and access to quality education facilities, even outside local schooling. But what about the children at the bottom of the pyramid? They constitute the mass of the population in a developing nation. Due to the price point, this mass does not get access to quality education. It is only when this mass has access to quality education, will there be a real impact of education on the society. This is Financepeer's firm belief and area of operation.

What has been the success mantra that constantly helps you arrive at positive outcomes?
There is no shortcut to success. The mantra that I follow is to keep trying until the success is met. I also believe one should not be afraid of taking a non-conventional approach to meet the goals. My personal life inspires my professional life. I read 'The Fifth Discipline' by Peter Senge early on and my perspective on business management took a leap. If you don't have systems thinking, you look at short term steps. As a leader, you must think of how everything works as a sum. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. It's easier said than done though. You require immense discipline, and at times, counter intuitive thinking to work on this mindset.

Going forward, what are your goals that you wish to invest in and how do you plan to take them further?
We want to grow into an education neobank, that enables & unlocks aspirations and is dedicated to remove finance as a hurdle from the Indian education sector. We are on a mission to improve the education landscape in the country by making quality education accessible to the bottom of the pyramid.

Rohit Gajbhiye, Founder & CEO, Financepeer
Honoured by Promising Entrepreneur of the Year 2020 by Economic Times, Rohit is an alumnus of IIT Bombay and Stanford Ignite. He is a member of UNGSII, World Economic Forum. Rohit is also an ExDBS, Singapore who worked in the Consumer Credit Space. He is experienced in Credit Risk, Commercial Banking, Liquidity Risk and Management. He envisions to vision to ease out Global School Fee Payments and boost the K-12 School/Education EcoSystem.